The Independent Album

Rolling Stone - June 26 1980

UNDEREXPOSURE

The Independent Album: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

By Stuart Coupe

THERE'S A SUPRISING number of very talented Australian groups who never make it to vinyl with major record companies because their music just doesn't appear to be marketable on a large scale. Over the past three years a number of these bands have taken things into their own hands. There's been well over 150 independent singles and EPs released in limited editions ranging from fifty to two thousand copies.

Recent months have also won the independents moving into the album business in a big way. Voigt 465, Young Modern, Spare Change, the Thought Criminals, Ron Rude, X and David Chesworth have all had albums released, As well as these, Sydney band the Shots have released a twelve inch piece of vinyl with five tracks on one side and nothing on the other. In addition, the Boys Next Doer, Mick Drennan and Eric Gradman's Man and Machine have released twelve inch EPs.

Probably the first independent album of past years was Live At The Station, recorded at Melbourne's legendary snake pit and featuring the likes of the Dingoes, the Wild Beaver Band and Myriad. The album was the work of Keith Glass and David Pepperell, who also re-released the Company Caine album. Glass now runs Missing link Records which released an album of Melbourne rockabilly called The Auto Drifters and the Relaxed Mechanics meet The Fabulous Nudes and The Pelaco Brothers. This was followed by Inner Sanctum..w, a collection of New Wave related tracks. Somewhere in there, cosmic wonders Cybertron released an album. And in Sydney, Radio Birdman's first album, Radios Appear, was initially released on the Trafalgar label.

The Bleeding Hearts released What Happened? through Missing Link. The album comprises a side of well recorded live material, a side of studio recordings and a bonus single. Overall quality is good to excellent.

The bleeding Hearts, Cybertron, and Radio Birdman are also the only Australian rock & roll bands to be bootlegged. Bleeding Hearts were the unwitting victims of an abysmal live recording of dubious origins. Rumour has that Cybertron knew about theirs and were completely happy to have it released.

Radio Birdman appeared on bootleg last year. Eureka Birdman was recorded at the Eureka Hotel in Geelong on November 30, 1977. As a souvenir of the Birdies' heyday it's essential. Quality is fairly atrocious but at full volume it takes on the all-engulfing power of a Birdman gig. It includes live versions of "LA Woman", "California Sun", "King Of The Surf', "Kick Out The Jams" and "1970" along with a number of Birdman originals - some that made it to legitimate vinyl and some that didn't. However it appears that band members aren't impressed and there's rumours of legal action. It's believed that all three bootlegs emanated from the same source.

Amongst all the new rock & roll various other independent albums have been released.

Tommy Emmanuel and Pee Wee Clark's From Out of Nowhere, a direct to disc album of country music and the Boy's Own McBeth album are good examples.

Then there's the question of 7 Records, Eureka Records Larrikin Records, Regular Records and even Mushroom Records who are all, according to some definitions, independent labels. But that's another story. Here's a look at recent releases from certified independent independents:

YOUNG MODERN - Play Faster (Local Records)

Ten tracks from a band who'll eventually be recognised as one of the finest Australian bands working in the contemporary pop genre.

Young Modern started in Adelaide in late 1977 and moved to Sydney six months before they broke up in July last year. Play Faster includes "Automatic" and "She's Got The Money" - both sides of their independent single produced by Sports'Stephen Cummings and released on the Top Gear label.

The rest are good quality demo tracks recorded in Adelaide. They're all masterpieces of catchy, lightweight rock & roll - radio songs that only ever get a hearing on 2JJ, 3RRR, 4ZZZ and SUV. John Dowler possesses one of the most effective voices in Australian rock & roll and it's one of the tragedies of Australian music in recent years that calls of "play faster" drove them to break up.

A fine album of ten potential hit singles.

SPARE CHANGE - Lonely Suits

This was John Dowler's previous band, which recorded one single for Gil Matthews' Champagne label before it went broke. Spare Change also included such Melbourne rock & roll luminaries as Chris Langman, Graeme Perry and Robert Kretschmer. Playing violin on Lonely Suits is former Millionaire, Henry Vyhnal.

Lonely Suits was recorded between November 1976 and March 1977 but only released this, year. There are twelve tracks of varying quality. All could have done with a re-mix to create a little more depth in sound but nevertheless there's some excellent complex pop-styled songs. Highlights are "The Big Beat" (a catchy tribute to the crucial element in all great pop music), "Let's Get Rich Together" (a cynical statement of intent), "Francoise" (a lilting European sounding love song), and "Down On The Boulevarde" (epic urban imagery before it was fashionable).

Lonely Suits showcases a highly competent, intricate and inventive band which broke up after a short lifespan. Their reward? Cult recognition three years later Woweee!

RON RUDE - The Borders Of Disgrace (Rudesound)

Ron Rude appears to have a complex about being an Australian David Bowie or Lou Reed. With a cast of thousands, whom he calls the Unforgettables, Rude has created some clever songs which he performs in an imaginative clutter. He deserves a place in history just for "Truly Julie" which sounds like a Berlin outtake as Rude intones a la Lou Reed such great lines as:
When I think of the cliches that hold as together

My heart is falling just like a feather.

And
But you can't mend a broken heart with glue

Dear heart, dear heart, I'm head over heels for you"
You've got style and you've got grace

But you've got watermelon on your face.

The Borders of Disgrace was recorded in 1978. It's interesting but hardly a masterpiece. Imitation and parody is usually very forgettable.

VOIGT465 - Slights Unspoken

Cult band extraordinaire, (the Voigts played around Sydney for a few months, released a single, split up. and released Slights Unspoken. Three hundred copies went within a week and a re-release is planned.

Voigt 465 played erratic, chaotic free form music reminiscent of the adventurous experimentation of Pere Ubu, and the Pop Group. female vocalist R Macron Cru has a, high pitched voice similar to Siouxsie of The banshees.

Although Slights Unspoken could have been better recorded it captures the band well and has more than its fair share of haunting and harrowing moments. Voigt will be remembered as the pioneers of the Australian rock & toll avant garde. Their audience. needless to say, was minimal.